Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The research is carried out to investigate the effect of El Nino and La Nina events
of oceans and seas on the rainfall of the coastal belts of Ghana. The study is done
by analysing the global Oceanic Nino Indices (ONI) and the Southern Oscillation
Indices (SOI) over a thirty-year period. The result of these global indices are then
compared to the annual mean rainfall for five different major coastal towns in
Ghana. The five towns used for the research include Accra, Tema, Ada, Saltpond
and Takoradi for the period 1986 to 2015. The data were analysed using
Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The annual
rainfall values for thirty-years in each of the five major coastal towns of Ghana
and the global indices are used to identify the El Nino and La Nina years over the
thirty-year climatological period. The effect of ONI and SOI values of the coast
on mean annual and monthly rainfall are determined using Microsoft Excel and
R-program to plot graphs. The analysis showed that the El Nino Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) events contribute to a variation of rainfall in the coastal
sectors of Ghana. The effect of El Nino Southern Oscillations events on the
rainfall along the coastal belts of Ghana do not provide a consistent trend for
accurate prediction. It was however noted in the research that all five study
stations recorded a slightly higher amount of both monthly and annual rainfall
during the La Nina regimes.
